Translator: Linette Field Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
I was writing my dissertation about literature
when I received a message from a close friend.
One of the pieces of news she told me
was that she would soon become the editor of a magazine focused on social content.
I was so happy to hear this, and I asked her to let me know
so I could send her an article about literature for publication.
After a few days, she answers with a categorical rejection.
She says, ’no, no, no sweetie.
In our magazine, we only publish things that are useful to society.′
Things which are useful to society.
That sentence resonated in my mind.
After all, I have spent much of my life studying something
that most people consider to be of no value at all.
I immediately started thinking about how to respond to my friend
to explain to her the reasons behind the fundamental role of literature.
To tell her, for example,
that literature is the highest form
of expressing human language.
With that argument, imagine how important literature is!
However, I still could not find greater arguments to tell her
that literature is more than the collection of stories
that take us to fictional and intangible worlds.
Yes, literature makes us sigh with romantic tales
allows us to become detectives and solve perfect crimes in detective novels
and lets us explore the worlds of vampires and wolves with our imagination.
But literature, in addition to being fun
can also be an instrument that contributes to social development.
While I was still thinking about how to respond to my friend
the typical situation arose where life and experience give us answers.
And of course, may the force be with you.
For professional reasons I worked on a community service project.
What are these types of projects?
To apply our theoretical studies to a real life situation
and to seek social improvement.
Opportunity arrived in the form of a box of books
that someone had donated for the youth and children of Chugchilán
a rural area in the Cotopaxi province.
That box of books was probably going to end up collecting dust
in some forgotten corner of an education centre in Chugchilán.
So my colleagues and I proposed that the most appropriate thing to do
would be to create reading spaces where we could put the literature to work.
With this in mind we began to think further
because Chugchilán is an area with a very high child malnutrition rate.
So the question was:
if these children and youngsters hardly have enough to eat
how can we make literature turn them into avid readers?
Because while access to reading is one of the basic human rights
the reality is very different.
However, confronting this reality, we decided to do our bit.
So, together with a group of teachers
and with students of literature, communication and visual arts
we started the book donation campaign.
More than 1300 copies of children’s and young people’s books
were donated on that occasion.
We took all of those books to the upper area of Chugchilán.
There, with the support both of teachers and the community
we were able to set up a library and two reading corners.
The first time we opened the library doors
to the kids and youngsters
was a moment of joy.
The children’s eyes roamed the shelves looking for more and more books.
But the project did not stop there
because we also needed to breathe life
into the books in that space.
What we did was to work with the students
who proposed fun activities to integrate reading, writing and art.
Many children wrote their first primitive literary stories.
Perhaps among them we will find the future icons of Ecuadorian literature.
Some months later, I had the opportunity to launch another new project
in which literature was the basis of possibility for social improvement.
Thanks to the invitation of the writer Leonor Bravo and of Casa Palabra library
we brought together students of literature, communication and psychology
to work on a task which involved reading poetry and stories
to adolescent mothers
and their children of barely a few days old.
Yes, exactly
reading literature to those tiny creatures
who could hardly lift their little heads and could not yet utter a single word.
Because it has been proven
that children who receive appropriate stimuli through reading
will be able to improve their communication and cognitive skills.
We were a bit apprehensive at the start of this project
because we didn’t really know how this activity would be received.
However, for an hour every week
armed with poetry and story books
we livened up the wards of a public hospital
specialised in gynaecology and obstetrics.
And let me tell you that poetry works miracles
or almost.
Because as soon as we began to read and sing,
the children began to quieten and become calm.
The parents who were also participating in this activity
noticed how the cadence of the poetry or the song
with its beautiful simplicity
produced a placidity and calmness in their little ones.
After this activity the mothers had happy faces
and we felt the satisfaction of a job well done.
These are just two small examples
of projects which see literature as a catalyst for social change.
There are many projects of this type both nationally and internationally.
For example, public libraries in marginalised areas.
Book clubs in economically depressed places.
Literary and creative writing workshops organised in shelters,
prison facilities and also in hospitals.
Generally, these projects are focused on working with vulnerable people.
Perhaps it is not possible to demonstrate
the immediate impact of the projects I have described.
However, I am sure that we were able to change and broaden the horizons
of many children in Chugchilán.
And also that we sowed the seeds of curiosity in their parents
to see reading as an effective way of bonding with their children.
I still have not replied to my friend.
But now I know for sure that I can tell her that
literature is not only useful to society but it also transforms society.
Thank you.